VIDEO: Comedian stages impromptu jamboree

Geordie comedian Ross Noble arranged an impromptu jamboree at the Bandstand on Monday.

The stand-up was in Whitby filming an episode of his new series, Ross Noble’s Freewheeling, which will air on the digital television channel Dave later this year.

Ross Noble during filming for his show, Free Wheeling, in Whitby
w132606e

The episode centred around cyclist James Sullivan (40) who was completing a cross-country bicycle ride. He had contacted Ross through the comedian’s Twitter account, and he hosted a welcome party for the cyclists at Whitby’s Bandstand.

However the comedian, famed for his whacky improvised routines, soon got distracted, treating pupils on board a tour bus to some untruths about the town and organising a talent show.

Ross explained: “You just have to let the show happen, see what becomes of it.”

For the Newcastle-born comedian, Whitby brought back childhood memories as family holidays were spent in the town. He explained: “We used to come down here a lot when we were kids. I’ve actually sailed in to Whitby, my Dad used to be into sailing, so I have entered by sea and left by sea.”

Ross Noble during filming for his show, Free Wheeling, in Whitby
w132606a

As for his favourite part of the town, Ross said: “I like the stairlift that goes up to the Abbey. Oh it hasn’t been built yet? Well, you know how some places get a monorail? Well you should get a chairlift that goes up to the top.”

However, as a comedian television presenter, Ross said he had some other plans for his latest visit to the town: “I’m definitely going to try and find some Goths tomorrow. I really want to get a lot of goths together and try to take them to a spray tanning place.”

James Sullivan brought Ross to Whitby with his Tweet informing Ross of the 160-mile charity bicycle ride he was completing from Seascale in Cumbria, finishing in Whitby .

James explained: “I follow him on Twitter and he said ‘What are people doing on Monday?’ I got in touch, so here we are. It was unbelievable when he showed up, it was surreal. It spurred us on a bit, it was great.”

Ross surprised the cyclists with what he described as a “Tour de France-style pit stop” along their route. He explained: “I got a portable BBQ from a service station, lit it, and got some burgers. But I didn’t have any utensils so I had to use bananas. So there was the glorious sight of James eating a burger spiked on a banana.”

At the welcome party Ross presented James with prizes donated by the Whitby Gazette including a snooker trophy, a rubber duckie, and a copy of Loose Women Sherrie Hewison’s autobiography, which had been lying around the office.

The comedian then hosted the very first ‘Ross Noble’s Outdoor Jamboree’, featuring a wide variety of Whitby-based talent and which will be featured on the comedy show. Some were joke performances, such as Alan the Tapdancer, Steve the Limping Shakespeare or Kev the Hillbilly Voodoo Cowboy.

Alan - real surname Pryce - from Staffordshire, said: “I just asked him ‘What’s the show like and they started filming. I’m not quite sure how I got involved.”

One of the genuine musicians who performed was bar tender Mackie (19), who said: “It was pretty intense, definitely the most televised gig I have ever done and the best for musical furtherisation.”

The six-part Ross Noble’s Freewheeling series will be shown on Dave in the autumn.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Whitby Gazette provides news, events and sport features from the Whitby area. For the best up to date information relating to Whitby and the surrounding areas visit us at Whitby Gazette regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Whitby Gazette requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.